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  • Harlequin Bunny
    Jun 17 11:07 PM
    Reply
    I've noticed something, just recently. When running an anonymous contest .. on the contest page, names are hidden .. on the poem page, the names are anonymized .. but when you get a notification about a response to a comment you make on an "anonymous contest poem", it shows the person's name .. "So-and-So has responded to your comment", and from there you are able to view the person's poet page. I realise, this must be something that would be really hard to fix, but .. well, it seems a silly oversight, to go through such extremes to make contests anonymous, just to have the fairness of the competition eliminated by a response, like that ..
    Also, when my Favorites enter an anonymous contest of mine, I can still see the poem, under their name, on the "new from your favorites" alert on the main page .. isn't the point of an anonymous contest to make it so that people can't unfairly judge contests by giving all the prizes to friends, or refusing to give them to people they don't like?

    Just thought I'd bring it up!

  • -BlackKnight-
    June 18
    Reply
    What's the point of having a favorites list if the list isn't updated when one of your favorites writes a new piece? If you're that worried about knowing whether your friends and/or favorites are entering your contests, do what another buddy of mine did and remove everyone from your favorites list until the contest is over.

  • MargaretG
    June 19
    Reply
    I don't see the use of "anonymized" printed under my smiling avatar.

    • polly filla
      June 19
      Reply
      ha ha, yeah. I try to change my avatar if I'm entering a contest hosted by someone I'm familiar with, but it's pointless, really

  • Dienush
    June 20
    Reply
    Yeah... I once tried what Black Knight suggested... I think that just not looking at the homepage or your friends page and asking entrants not to reply/rate, would be enough.
    However, I had another problem a couple times... If one of my AP friends enter my anonymous contest and s/he happens to send me a message just when I'm getting to the entry.... that's right, the name is anonymized, but I can tell who it is from the message... ah well. Lucky me I don't care for anonymity much. But sometimes it'd be neat.
    Better anonymity would also make judging less hard. I mean, my favorites are my favorites mostly because their poetry is good (duh!). And, of course, I sort of befriend some of them. But when they enter my contests which are filled with good entriews and still I like theirs the best (which is because they're good, not because of who they are), I feel odd to award them trophies because I know who they are and it can be misinterpreted. I also feel odd not offering trophies to the best entries. I ultimately go for quality, of course, but anonymity could certainly be useful sometimes.
    But I'm aware it's hard work I couldn't do, so it's ok if I don't have it perfect

    • Harlequin Bunny
      June 20
      Reply
      This is exactly my problem. I have a lot of people that I adore on this site .. and, I have the same issue, when I accidentally discover who one is, it's hard for me .. part of me wants to give a prize just because they're so good and dear to me, another part because the poem itself is good, and in the end, I'm never quite sure which part of me won out. To sway the unfair part of me, I always ask for my boyfriend and my sister's opinions on my top 5 poems before choosing the winner, so I can discuss the poems with them and understand why I like one over the other .. but, really .. I feel that if the "anonymous contest" system doesn't really WORK .. there's no real reason to have it in place at all.

      • Dienush
        June 20
        Reply
        Actually, it makes for an extra feature for gold members. I'd say that could be reason enough...

        • ea
          June 20
          Reply
          Yes, Kevin must have people flocking to buy gold memberships just so they can see who's entering their contests. It must be like the new members of the EU flocking to Germany.

  • ea
    June 20
    Reply
    You can successfully run them anonymously by not keeping a friend's list and by training yourself not to look down the page at the comments where you might recognize their avatars or see other comments using the poet's name. It only works for short run contests, though, (overnights) or you are bound to run into entries when you visit friend's pages.

    Another trick is to judge it before making comments so that they don't rate your stars or answer you back.

    It is fun to do it truly anonymously, because it is like opening a present in the end for the judge, when they are surprized by the winners.

    Of course, you can see titles on the sidebar if someone features a poem that's in your contest and of course, you recognize the writing from certain people sometimes, just because you know their work or their backgrounds or their lists...

    so yeah, in the end, it's more of trouble than it's worth and the site is too social to support anonymity.

    So go for the Salon idea... that's what I recommend. Take the focus off the prize and get back to the poetry. http://allpoetry.com/board/topic/268593383

    • Harlequin Bunny
      June 20
      Reply
      I agree, it's probably more trouble than it's worth, though it would be possible .. (could send the person running the contest to a temporary alternate page, where the background is standard default, etc, etc) ..
      Of course, even if you completely anonymized people who enter your contest, you'd still know when your friends entered, if not what they entered, by the fact that you suddenly couldn't view their poet pages ..
      As I said above, though .. if the system doesn't work, it's kind of silly to have it at all ..

      I do really like the "Salon" idea .. the only problem I see with it, is that most people probably wouldn't participate, because they view the site as an ongoing competition, and wouldn't want to "waste" their time on something that didn't "reward" them ..
      Of course, it would be no great trial to lose those types of people .. in fact, might make it even more enjoyable

      • ea
        June 20
        Reply
        yes, if the system were set up right, the anonymous thing could be cool. As it is, it just puts a lot of pressure on hosts and misleads the poets who have no idea about how the contests work. What I especially dislike is that you have no choice but to run them in this ridiculous set-up unless you are *gold* or want to bother the moderators to unset it for you.

        I also agree that the "old school" on this site will not be open to the Salon idea because they are already accustomed to the Pavlovian dog response of trophies. I am not advocating for the removal of contests - just providing a new option that would appeal to a different mind set and for new people coming in and those who are discouraged by the contests.

  • Barbara
    June 20
    Reply
    I rarely host contests any longer... too hard to think up a good idea that hasn't been done to death, and half the people don't bother reading the rules, or, if it allows prewrites, they enter the same piece of...poetry... that's been in 50 other contests.

    But, when I do host, and request that people NOT reply to my comment... it annoys the hell out of me when they applaud it instead.
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